Chapter 650 — The Might of the Sacred Wheel

Shen Mu was beside himself with joy, and straightaway hurried off to the South Sea with Chi Xi to haul the Wheel of Creation back to the capital, afraid that Chi Xi might change his mind.

When Ban Gongcuo saw that Chi Xi had granted the greater part of Shen Mu's demands and that many treasures of the sea-bed divine city had been handed over to the State of Jingping, he could not keep from aching with pain. "Master, this is an alliance, not submission. You have given Emperor Yanfeng too much! Tens of thousands of divine weapons and keen blades!

And the Wheel of Creation above all - a treasure among treasures - how could you promise it to Jingping? " Chi Xi sneered.

"This Sect Master Shen is a country boy who has never seen the world.

The emperor has never seen the world either. Neither have you.

" Ban Gongcuo was baffled. "I beg your instruction, Master. " "Those divine weapons and keen blades were all forged in the Chiming Era. How rich the Heavenly Court was in those years!

A mere few tens of thousands of divine weapons - nothing to be concerned with; only the stores of a single treasure vault in the Heavenly Palace. " Chi Xi said calmly, "As for the Wheel of Creation, it is true that the Chiming Divine Dynasty spent great effort forging this wheel, and that it could never be forged again, for the blueprints are gone and so are the craftsmen capable of it.

Yet this wheel was only ever a key to break a seal!

The people of the Chiming Divine Dynasty are all unsealed already; keeping this wheel is of no use, and it has cost us a great tract of territory instead! What matters most is that the Chiming Divine Dynasty have a foothold in the ancestral land, from which they can nibble away step by step and enlarge their domain! Once we have learned Jingping's dao arts and divine powers, will Jingping still be able to withstand the gods and demons of the Chiming Divine Dynasty?

" Ban Gongcuo's eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands in unceasing admiration. Chi Xi smiled. "From different heights, one sees different things. Disciple, the height you stood at before was like standing on a chicken coop, thinking that scratching worms out of the earth is a fine thing; but to an eagle in the sky, scratching worms from the earth is what chickens do. " Ban Gongcuo bowed down and said in all sincerity, "Master's reproof is just. How laughable that Sect Master Shen still thinks himself clever and swaggers so proudly! " Chi Xi laughed. "That is because his vision and understanding are low, so he cannot see far.

But Emperor Yanfeng is the great sovereign of the Jingping Era, and I never expected him to be so short-sighted as well.

That, and no more, is what makes me hold him in contempt. Such an emperor deserves not to rule this land. Come, go with me to see Emperor Yanfeng; I have a matter to seek him on.

" The master and disciple went into the palace to seek an audience. Yan Zhigui hurried out to meet them.

"His Majesty is in the imperial garden, watching Lord Shen test a treasure. Pray follow me, both of you. " Chi Xi followed him to the imperial garden, and from afar saw the massive Wheel of Creation standing atop a rockery, surrounded by high walls that barred all outsiders. Coming inside, he saw three or five gods - civil officials, by the look of them - standing with Emperor Yanfeng and the others around the Wheel of Creation, and the Primordial Ancestor, the Human Emperor, among them.

Beside them were the Empress and Princess Ling Yuxiu and the other princesses and the little prince, attended by a dozen palace maids. As for the Wheel of Creation, Shen Mu had taken out a great heap of calculation soldiers and assembled them into an enormous calculating instrument, ceaselessly computing away at something, one could not tell what.

"Your Majesty. " Chi Xi stepped forward and saluted.

"Since the covenant is made, I must leave Jingping and go to see the Divine Son. This time it was I, an outer vassal, who signed the covenant with Your Majesty, but the Divine Son must be informed as well; I beg Your Majesty to send envoys to the Chiming Suspended Void Realm to see the Divine Son.

" "That is as it should be.

" Emperor Yanfeng smiled. "When Lord Shen has finished testing the Wheel of Creation, I shall send several envoys with Daoist Chi Xi to the Suspended Void Realm.

Daoist Chi Xi, wait a little longer.

" Chi Xi assented and stood smiling to one side, quietly watching Shen Mu compute within the wheel. Ban Gongcuo wore a smile, perfectly at ease, thinking, "I have heard Emperor Yanfeng is a muddle-headed, unprincipled fellow who has heads cut off at the least provocation. In a moment, when Emperor Yanfeng discovers that the Wheel of Creation he paid so dearly for is useless, he will surely have that wretch's head cut off!

" Inside the Wheel of Creation, Shen Mu computed for a long while, then abruptly withdrew the calculation soldiers and laughed.

"I am utterly certain now! " Chi Xi smiled.

"Young friend Shen, if you wish to activate the wheel of my Chiming Era, by all means ask me; I can teach you.

" Shen Mu shook his head, and tried to light the activation rune on the wheel, shaking his head again. "You do not understand. Asking you would be of no use.

" Chi Xi was not the least angered.

He smiled. "The activation rune is not that one, young friend Shen.

Your calculation is wrong.

" "It is not wrong.

" Shen Mu floated within the wheel.

One rune after another on the Wheel of Creation lit up, the runes flowing and shifting like water, and then great wheels enclosed small wheels, divine wheels revolving one after another - and unlike when Chi Xi had driven it, these divine wheels were turning in reverse! Hum, hum, hum! The Wheel of Creation spun faster and faster, and beams of rune-light shone in every direction, sweeping in an instant over every person in that great courtyard!

Suddenly there came a crackling, popping sound.

Chi Xi looked hastily, and saw the bodies of Emperor Yanfeng and the others changing at furious speed: Emperor Yanfeng was majestic and imposing, yet now a fish's head had sprouted from his shoulders! And of the gods beside Emperor Yanfeng, some had heads turned into tree crowns, some into jellyfish, and even the Empress had become an enormous sea beast!

Chi Xi was stunned; he looked hurriedly at Ban Gongcuo, and Ban Gongcuo had already fallen prone on the ground, transformed into a great sea serpent, writhing and squirming! Chi Xi hastily felt at his own head, and gave a cry of alarm: his head too had become three enormous fish heads!

Nor was that all: his primordial spirit was changing as well, and the arcane power he had cultivated bitterly over hundreds of thousands of years could not be used at all! Chi Xi was panic-stricken.

He watched helplessly as his own legs became a fish's tail. Of all those present, apart from Shen Mu at the center of the wheel, only the Primordial Ancestor had not been assimilated by the Wheel of Creation - yet even his body was changing with thump after thump, now sprouting fish scales, now fish gills!

Clearly, even the Primordial Ancestor, the Human Emperor, could not wholly withstand the power of this Wheel of Creation!

This was no divine ability that inflicted enormous harm on others, but a strange power of Creation; the Primordial Ancestor, the Human Emperor, could resist it because he too had studied the arts of Creation. "This is bad!

" Chi Xi suddenly understood. "No wonder that fellow Shen insisted on the Wheel of Creation! When he cast his eyes on my God-Slaying Mystic Saber, I should have known this scoundrel's eye was as seasoned as an old thief's!

" Browsing and reading address: